Treasurer's Responsibilities

About Us

The Lake County Treasurer's Office safeguards taxpayer cash in the possession of the Lake County Government through honest and competent stewardship by actively managing banking relationships and by investing temporary surpluses. Further, the Lake County Treasurer's Office, as the Ex Officio County Collector, will bill, collect, and distribute real estate taxes to Lake County taxing bodies in a timely and efficient manner, providing excellent customer service to taxpayers by telephone, internet and direct personal contact.

Important Notice

Those homeowners that may depend on the U.S. Postal Service to "Temporarily Forward" their bill to a second location should be aware that due to new postal regulations, your future bills may not be forwarded as they have in the past. We ask those homeowners affected to please sign up for e-notification on our website. Once the annual tax bills are available, a notification will be mailed. Failure to receive a bill does not relieve the taxpayer of penalty if payment is late.

New This Year

The return envelopes that accompany your tax bill will include the return address of our new P.O. BOX located in Bedford Park, IL. This location was selected as it is the closest Post Office to our Lock Box facility. We are very excited for this new option as we are always looking for ways to improve productivity here at the Treasurers’ Office.

Real Estate Tax Information:

Mail out over 264,000 tax bills.

Collect over 2 billion dollars in taxes.

Send out only ONE tax bill a year with 2 installment stubs attached (June & September). Tax bills are mailed the first week of May.

Due dates are usually the first week of June and September, but actual date could change from year to year.

To avoid penalties, payments must be US postmarked by the actual due date.

Postmarked or received after the due date are deemed delinquent and shall bear penalty of 1 1/2% per month or portion thereof. Mobile Home penalty is $25 per month, maximum of 4 months.

Lenders/Title Companies must pay a $5 duplicate bill fee for each parcel.

Unsigned and postdated checks will not be held and may incur additional fees.

Payments Can Be Made

In person at the Lake County Treasurer's Office, 18 N County Street by cash, check (payable to County Collector) or with credit card (Master Card, Visa & Visa Debit, Discover). An added fee of 2.15% is charged to each credit card transaction and $3.95 for Visa Debit.

Online payments can be made with credit cards. An added fee of 2.35% is charged to each credit card transaction; this fee is added and collected by a third party credit card processing company. This fee will be shown separately from your tax amount on your credit card statement. Absolutely no additional funds are provided to any taxing district from these transactions. When using this option, please make sure your line of credit covers the tax payment amount as well as the additional fee.

E-check - ACH direct from your checking account (some investment accounts not eligible) Fee: Electronic check transactions between $0 to $50,000.00 will be charged a $1.00 fee, while $50,000.01 to $80,000.00 are $3.00 and $80,000.01 to $100,000.00 are $8.50. Electronic checks above $100,000.00 will not be accepted. This fee will show as a separate transaction on your statement.

Automatic withdrawal from checking or saving account, application must be completed and received by the treasurer's office 14 days prior to the 1st installment.

Payments can be made at most Lake County local banks. Banks will accept payments from the day the bills are released through the 2nd installment due date.

One drop box location is open 24 hours a day for your convenience. The boxes are open from the day the bills go in the mail through the 2nd installment due date.

E-banking: Those that pay their bills through their local bank's website should be aware that these payments do take additional time to be received and posted. It is extremely important that you add your Property Index Number to that record so the payment can be properly posted.